African Americans in Chicago’s North Side Schools have made significant gains in Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) scores from 2004 to 2008. Joseph Lovett Elementary School in western Logan Square and the surrounding community could serve a model for success in elementary education.
The percent increase in African Americans meeting or exceeding ISAT scores for 40 Chicago’s North Side schools is 53.9 percent from 2004 to 2008, according to analysis of data collected in Chicago Public Schools Office of Research, Evaluation and Accountability research data.
Lovett Elementary at 6333 W. Bloomingdale Ave. is made up of 89.9 percent African Americans. It could be a model example of the gains that African Americans have made in ISAT scores. The percent increase of African Americans meeting or exceeding ISAT scores was 75.3 percent, from 2004 to 2008.
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The ISAT is administered to students in grades three through eight and tests reading, math, science and writing. Science and writing are administered only in certain years, but reading and math are tested all six years.
According to the Illinois State Board of Education, “the [ISAT] measures individual student achievement relative to the Illinois Learning Standards. The results give parents, teachers, and schools one measure of student learning and school performance.”
Principal at Lovett Elementary Donna Newton-Holland said the school has not changed class curriculums to improve the scores but does credit hard work. She did say there has been strong parent involvement with students in the past four years and that extra curricular activities that require making C grades or better have increased.
While the school is doing more beyond the classroom to keep their students invested in their education, several factors within the community also work to keep their kids on track.
Two churches within steps of the school, Galewood and Bethany Lutheran, distribute information about free tutoring through Lovett and other sources. Galewood just across the street even collects donated school supplies for Lovett students. Both churches also host some tutoring occasionally for children and their parents.
The most vibrant example however by far is Amundsen Park. Just steps from Lovett on Bloomingdale Avenue, the park is the neighborhood’s outlet for the Chicago Park District.
Gregory Mason, supervisor of the park, describes the extra help offered there to Lovett students, “The park district has always provided what we call ‘after school programs.’ We give the kids an outlet to come in and do their homework for a couple hours, provide a [tutor], and after that the kids can choose to go into other recreational activities.” Mason says that because of what they do, Lovett has taken notice.
“What’s happened in the last three or four years with the school system, up here at Lovett, they are now offering an after school program too, which is completely free,” said Mason. “So what we’re finding out now is that our numbers are slipping from a park district perspective and it looks like now at Lovett they’ve picked up because they’re offering a free after school program. The only thing with the programs at Lovett is there’s no recreation involved.”
The park hosts several outreach programs for the neighborhood’s children such as “Girls in the Game,” a weekly program for junior high girls designed to boost body image and leadership skills, and several intramural sports. But the by far most influential program is Kraft Food Inc.’s “Great Kids.”
Director of Great Kids Janelle Stephens added that the program is more than just reading, writing and arithmetic. “Another element of the program that may be helping with the ISAT scores is the arts-based literacy work that we do twice per week at the park.”
Students have done everything from writing and producing their own play to creating a comic book through the program. “Through these activities, kids are having fun but also practicing their reading and writing skills,” said Stephens. This session’s focus is movement and writing where children will be composing dances to their own poetry.
“It’s really a big asset,” said Mason. “That’s where we get most involvement …‘cause on family night they provide a meal and also someone who comes in, could be a storyteller or whatever. The parents are involved in that. It forces the parents to be involved in that ‘cause it’s called ‘family night.’ They want the parents here. Our biggest contribution getting parents here is with the Kraft Kids Program, plus it’s free and it’s a free dinner.”
A partnership between the Chicago Public Library and the Chicago Park District and sponsored by Kraft Foods Inc., “Great Kids” provides a certified teacher at select park district locations four days a week to help with homework.
Once a month, in conjunction with the library, the program hosts a “family night” where children are provided with a free book and the family gets a free dinner. Mason said that he’s seen a big increase in student interest in the park district and parental involvement during Great Kids’ four years in action.
Independent of all that is the Windy City Dolphins, a football team for elementary school boys in the north and western regions of the city. The park teems with families and children on a Monday afternoon in late summer for the Dolphins’ practice. Parents have come to watch their sons learn the discipline of football or their daughters the art of dancing and cheering; younger siblings scream and play on the nearby playground while an ice cream truck drives up and down Bloomingdale Avenue.
Head Coach of the Dolphins, Gerald Harris, started the team as a way to be more involved with the kids of the neighborhood. “I do it because we’re surrogate fathers. You got anywhere from 65-75 percent mother’s head of household. We’re fathers for this period of time.”
Harris says that to him, football teaches the accountability and discipline required by society. “A lot of our kids are going to college and private schools without the tuition costs associated with it. More than that, we want them to be productive citizens. If you can teach and reveal character, nine times out of 10 they’re going to be a productive citizen. They may go in and out of something right or wrong, but who don’t?”
Like the after school programs at Lovett, Harris doesn’t permit a kid to play if their grades aren’t up to snuff. Several of the kids in Harris’ program are admitted to private high schools in the area and many earn scholarships, for sports or academics. “You’re probably not going pro, but you will go to college,” said Harris.
Harrison Sutton, 46, is a father of three students at Lovett. “I don’t know what this will give him in school, but I just let him do this for himself,” said Sutton. Tony, 13, begged his dad to join the Dolphins. “They have these after school things at Lovett, but it doesn’t have the oomph he needs. I’m not seeing his grades go where they need to go.”
Sutton likes to stay involved with his kids and worries when he doesn’t see that in other parents at Lovett, “the ones that you don’t see, they’re the ones that fall by the wayside…Gangs got love too, it’s just not the right kind of love.”
Sutton, who used to be in a gang himself, just wants his kids to be safe and make good choices. “I have to [be involved] ‘cause I don’t want my kids to fall off. Because if they fall off, what does that say about me? I didn’t do my job. I gotta step up ‘cause I want him to be a much better man than I am. I want him to have things and provide for himself and someday even his kids.”
Sutton hopes that his influence and activities like the Dolphins will teach Tony the way to think for himself. But when it comes down to it, Sutton’s concerns for his children are that of all parents. “All kids really look to us to be loved. If you don’t show them love, they’re gonna go look for it somewhere else. Kids like toys and video games, but what they really wanna know is that dad and mom are there for me and care about me.”
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Final project for Medill methods.
